Crystal’s Rants

Football season… the air of Friday nights and the electricity of small town nowhereville USA flocking to what is almost a social gathering which just so happens to surround the gridiron.  Gotta Love IT!

This year, however, I am loving it a little more than in past.  For the first time in four seasons I will be on the sidelines feeling more confident about being there after working hard all spring and summer and really buckling down on my workouts to get positive results.  In fact, I am nearing my ultimate goal, which is AMAZING!

I remember last year, I was reading in a neighboring newspaper about their sports journalist who had soared in weight gain to the point of morbid obesity, as a form of documentation to others to help motivate them he took on the very personal matter in a series of articles which followed his gastric bypass surgery.  He has continued to do so up until as recently as a couple months ago, and I must say he has had some amazing results.  However, it made me think, while I am not taking away from his apparent need to do so (he was up to somewhere near 500 lbs)… the answer to most of surgery has been way to simple a task for them.

Already withing my own progress, over half of the people who I run into in our small town automatically assume I must have had lap band or gastric.  It discounts my hard work…hehe.. but moreso it makes me worry about other people.  Usually when I tell them how I have achieved results I get the common answer, "Oh well that sounds like too much work". 

Is everyone so stubborn or lazy that they can’t do the same? 

I most certainly will have those same questions for the next couple weeks as I continue to run into the fairweather readers who perk up for football season then fade into the woodwork after season’s end.  But none the less I hope that the NEW me helps at least show someone that hard work might not be the easiest answer but it is by far a better solution.

Compared to last year when the season began I am now some  60 pounds lighter.  I have given away all my pants that I was wearing last season because they literally would fall off my body when buttoned and moreso I am light on my feet and full of life, which will come in handy because while on the sidelines you sometimes have situations where you have to get out of the way at a moments notice.  The NEW me is ready for some Football!!

I have been working out really since December of last year, and I thought I had hit a plateau, but then when I did my monthly progress check I noticed I was still dropping inches, while not as dramatically it was still happening. 

My biggest accomplishment however is the progress I have made in way of my actual workout.  I am by no means strong but I have been able to add weight in everything I have been doing at the gym and even better my cardio has improved so much.  Before when I would go to the gym I hated cardio the most out of everything but I would make myself do it.  Now without issue I can make it through my workout sometimes going an hour on the eliptical and pushing though those two a days I set out to accomplish for myself on the bike.  While I have tweaked workouts because of my schedule, it is amazing that I am able to enjoy cardio now.  I have never been a runner nor have I ever enjoyed cardio but I have found my niche at the gym!  Just me and some music and I am set!

After taking last week off because I was tired and overworked, not to mention my mom being in the hospital, I started back into the swing of things this week.  It was not easy!

The thing that has helped, it is football season, and with that I know because of my job I will have to find a way to be more flexible with my scheduling of workouts.  This time of year always is rough on finding a routine.  As I work for a newspaper, we have to be at a dozen events sometimes a week, and with that my typical workout schedule has to bend and flex.

Fridays are occupied at night by games as are Friday afternoons by various activities which require my attention.  Being in a small town, you pretty much have to be involved in everything when it comes to reporting, it isn’t like those who go to a game for the Cowboys, do their interview then call it a day.  Instead, I get to go to the game, take photos, write the post game, post the photos and game highlights on Friday night and all this in addition to documenting pep rallies and such for a photo dvd we sell at the end of the season.

IT IS BUSY!

This week was just a taste of the all the busy work that is to come and how I will have to work with and around it.  Two-a-days and photo day weren’t that bad, but combine that with the upcoming scrimmage in a different town tomorrow and press day, I already could see the need to rearrange my afternoon workout.  This time of the year tires me, and I am not a morning person, so I will have to bite the bullet and do mornings despite my desire to stay in bed…

I was doing great with a mid morning workout before my break, doing two sets of cardio a day and having real progress, I hate to cut back on this, but packing that much cardio into one session seems overwhelming in combination with weights, so there has to be a balance in the juggling act.  Maybe even certain days I can do cardio twice while on others limiting it to once.

Next week will be the true test of working with and around the busy schedule, while football Fridays are limited and Thursdays due to JV games and press day are packed I still believe I have to put me first when it comes to my goals and making it happen, no matter how hard it might seem. 

I think that the term Eyes on the Prize best sums it up, no matter how difficult it might seem with schedules there has to be a way!

I didn’t realize just how much stress can make you tired until this week.  I had a long weekend with some things going on and it totally has drained me.

I never despite all my things going on realized how much of a toll it took on your system, then yesterday after doing a workout, that while good wasn’t up to my typical standard, I had reached a point of meltdown.  My body was finished and I sat starring for a few moments, feeling very ill almost to the point of passing out.

It was pretty scary, but I was just so drained.  Last night I slept, but again this morning I didn’t feel like I had slept enough.  The only thing that has changed has been my stress levels, what gives?

Anyone have suggestions as to how to break through this stress and tired funk?